Demidont starts new chapter leading ACRP

July 17, 2003|By VICKI ROCK, Daily American Staff Writer

Andy Demidont, former superintendent of Rockwood Area School District, doesn't quite see his new job as director of education for Alternative Community Resource Program as jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

"New frying pan - new fire," he said.

Demidont, 56, was superintendent at Rockwood for seven years and retired effective June 30, after two months on a family leave. He and his wife, Joella, have three adult children: Adrian, Andrea and Arica.

"I was bored," he said about his very brief retirement.

He spoke to Frank Janakovic, executive director of ACRP, first about consulting, but decided it would be hard to do much only consulting a day or two a week. Then ACRP decided to hire him full-time.

While details are still being ironed out, Demidont will oversee three alternative schools in Cambria and Somerset counties and the educational component of ACRP's adolescent partial hospitalization program, a day program for teens with serious mental health diagnoses.

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Initially he will concentrate on Johnstown programs. Johnstown is the biggest ACRP partner with 65 students. The program has five schools and 150 students.

"I look at it as special education, but in a different form," Demidont said. "When I met with the teachers, I was reminded again, a lot of these kids are very intelligent; they just haven't channeled that into the right direction. A lot of the problem is these kids are bored and don't deal well in large group instruction situations. They require intervention, possibly one-on-one. That's what ACRP is designed to do."

ACRP's alternative education programs are for students in grades sixth through 12 experience with serious difficulties in the traditional school setting. Disruptive behavior is the most common reason students attend alternative schools.

While the ultimate goal is to get kids back to their home school, that is not always possible. The optimist in Demidont hates to acknowledge that, but his realist side understands that some kids can't be educated in the standard classroom.

Only a small percentage of the students in alternative schools have been in trouble with the law. The larger percentage are students who just can't be in a regular classroom. While most just have behavioral problems, some have mental health issues and need the partial hospitalization program which is more clearly defined as a treatment program.

"Having Andy join our staff is a major asset to our organization, our entire education system and particularly the students themselves," Janakovic said. "He brings with him a great knowledge of technology."

Under his guidance, the Rockwood district was spot-lighted as a model district for rural education by a U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Rural Education and by the new America Foundation because of its focus on technology in the classroom.

Prior to coming to Rockwood, Demidont spent 10 years as principal at Souderton Area High school in Philadelphia, nine years with Northern Tioga School District and five years with Oswayo Valley Junior-Senior High school. He has a bachelor's degree from Mansfield University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree from Lehigh University.

He plans to focus on improving technology and the educational experience for students at ACRP's alternative schools. Greater access to technology will allow teachers to tailor curriculum to individual students. He wants to enhance behavior management techniques used in classrooms. Among his challenges will be to reduce staff turnover.

"The kids were the best thing (about being Rockwood superintendent) and what I'll miss the most," he said. "That's another reason to take this job. The worst thing was I became increasingly frustrated with the rhetoric of accountability. I think there are great distortions related to accountability in public education. If the general public had the opportunity to walk in the shoes of teachers today, they'd have a far greater appreciation for what teachers do."

The talk of accountability in schools leads people to believe those in the business of education don't care about accountability, whereas nothing could be further from the truth, he said. Good schools have historically tracked their students' performance. The general public believes college board scores are down, while they are up. Where there are lower scores in language arts overall, it can be traced to the increasing numbers of non-English native speakers taking the test.

He asked some Rockwood students what they think about the increase in standardized testing and one replied that they were not in school to be tested, they were in school to learn. Because of the government requiring more testing, it doesn't seem that way.